Browsing by Author "Gonçalves, Ramiro Manuel"
Now showing 1 - 10 of 34
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- Accessibility in mobile applications of portuguese public administrationPublication . Carneiro, Marcos; Branco, Frederico; Gonçalves, Ramiro Manuel; Oliveira, Manuel Au-Yong; Moreira, Fernando; Martins, JoséToday’s society presents a fast development marked by the digital era, where the sharing, disclosure and access to information is made through information and communication technologies. The use of mobile applications is growing exponentially, spreading to the most varied social classes and everyday activity areas. Worldwide, its use in the most variety of services, has been increasing significantly. Given that, it is essential that mobile applications are accessible in a way that allows access conditions and equal opportunities to all the users. With this study we present indicators regarding the state of accessibility in mobile applications through the evaluation of five Portuguese public administration applications. The methodology used was a fully manual evaluation through a proposal of a model of evaluation divided by quantitative and qualitative requirements created by us, as well as the use of functionalities such as VoiceOver and TalkBack. Taking into account that the study initially proposed on accessibility in mobile applications is the first to be carried out in Portugal and one of the few currently worldwide, it is believed that its content may help, in some way, to raise awareness of the state of accessibility in the Portuguese mobile applications, to create measures that make these applications more accessible to all and that this work could be taken into account in future studies of the topic.
- Accessibility of mobile applications for tourism - is equal access a reality?Publication . Madeira, Stephane; Branco, Frederico; Gonçalves, Ramiro Manuel; Au-Yong-Oliveira, Manuel; Moreira, Fernando; Martins, JoséWith the increasing use of smartphones in people’s daily lives, mobile accessibility has become a key factor for them. Tourism is one of the sectors that has benefited the most from this growth but has not yet reached its full potential as accessibility has not yet been fully exploited. The main goal of this study is to assess accessibility in mobile applications for the tourism sector. Thus, 14 mobile applications were analyzed, using a manual and automatic methodology through the proposal of an evaluation model divided by quantitative and qualitative requirements, as well as the use of features such as VoiceOver and TalkBack. The results show a high overall number of errors in most quantitative requirements as well as non-compliance with most qualitative requirements. On iPhone 4, “Viseu – Guia da Cidade” was the application with the highest rating, while on Wiko GOA, it was the “JiTT.Travel Funchal” application. In turn, on iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone XR, Nokia 5.1 and OnePlus 6 devices, the best results were achieved by the “Viseu – Guia da Cidade,” “JiTT.Travel Funchal” and “TUR4all” applications. Regarding the accessibility of mobile applications on different versions of the same mobile operating system, it was concluded that there are no differences in their accessibility on both operating systems (iOS and Android). Finally, regarding the accessibility of applications on smartphones with different screen sizes, there are also no differences in their accessibility.
- Accessible software development: a conceptual model proposalPublication . Silva, João Sousa e; Gonçalves, Ramiro Manuel; Branco, Frederico; Pereira, António Manuel; Oliveira, Manuel Au-Yong; Martins, JoséEqual access to all software and digital content should be a reality in the Digital Era. This argument is something defended both by existing regulations, norms and standards, and also business organizations and governments. Despite this acknowledgement, the reality is still far from the desired equality. For certain groups of disabled or impaired citizens, such as the visually impaired, the existence of e-accessibility compliance represents an opportunity to integrate, in a more simple and straightforward manner, their societies. Despite the existing poor results on e-accessibility compliance, the mentioned citizens insist on using digital devices in their daily lives. Even though, in the last decade, multiple standards and regulations have been published towards indicating how to develop accessible digital user interfaces, there are still two major issues surrounding its implementation: the complexity and disparity of the documents containing the abovementioned norms, and also the lack of e-accessibility know-how by software experts. With this in mind, a proposal for an accessible software development model that encompasses e-accessibility incorporation as one of the development process activities has been presented. This model might represent a very interesting support tool for software development organizations and a novel resource for learning and training institutions to be able to improve their computer science and informatics students’ skills on e-accessibility.
- Acessibilidade web nas plataformas online do setor do turismo em PortugalPublication . Branco, Frederico; Pereira, Lázaro; Gonçalves, Ramiro Manuel; Martins, JoséAs TIC - Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação proporcionam aos seus utilizadores uma conetividade global permanente através de uma gama variada de dispositivos e tendo como suporte principal a Internet. Assumindo atualmente uma relevância económica muito significativa para um grupo considerável de países, o setor do Turismo está em pleno ato de transformação digital, no âmbito do qual uma boa parte dos seus serviços estão a evoluir para versões suportadas por TIC e pela Internet. Neste contexto, a garantia de acesso universal aos websites (acessibilidade Web) que suportam os negócios das organizações deste setor ganha especial relevância. Este artigo apresenta uma análise ao nível de acessibilidade Web de 240 websites diretamente relacionados com o setor do turismo, recorrendo à ferramenta TAW - Test de Acessibilidad Web. Apesar da crescente preocupação em proporcionar meios cada vez mais inclusivos, a esmagadora maioria dos websites não atingiu o nível mínimo de acessibilidade, não garantindo assim acesso devidamente funcional aqueles que possuem uma incapacidade ou limitação.
- Adequabilidade dos modelos de maturidade do negócio electrónico à economia digitalPublication . Morais, Elisabete Paulo; Pires, José Adriano; Gonçalves, Ramiro ManuelAs empresas hoje vivem num contexto de ciclos económicos em que existe uma competitividade crescente e ciclos de vida mais curtos para os produtos e serviços, exigindo como tal um conhecimento profundo dos clientes e fornecedores. O negócio electrónico é uma forma de estruturar todos os processos da organização suportada em Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC) que permitem uma ligação directa com os clientes, parceiros do negócio, colaboradores e a sua própria gestão. Este artigo pretende ser uma reflexão sobre se os modelos de maturidade do negócio electrónico estarão adequados à nova realidade do negócio electrónico, no qual as redes sociais o estão a transformar num “negócio social”.
- An exploratory investigation of e-business constraints among large organizations in PortugalPublication . Morais, Elisabete Paulo; Pires, José Adriano; Gonçalves, Ramiro ManuelIt is well recognized that e-business supports all parts of an organization’s value chain, and offer valuable competitive advantages to firms. It is imperative for an organization to identify potential constraints to ebusiness in order to minimize the risk derived from its e-business initiative. Hence, in this paper, we explore a range of constraints that the literature suggests influences e-business evolution, so that organizations could be better equipped in anticipating any difficulties while in progress through their e-business initiatives. Thirteen hypotheses were formulated and tested. Questionnaires were applied to investigate the research problem. It was administered to 1000 managing directors of the biggest (according to the amount of business) Portuguese enterprises. Results suggest that organizational constraints are more critical, such as, conflict with traditional trading partners, conflict with traditional business and e-business initiatives, reengineering business processes and resistance to change, among other.
- An integrated information systems architecture for the agri‐food industryPublication . Branco, Frederico; Gonçalves, Ramiro Manuel; Moreira, Fernando; Au-Yong-Oliveira, Manuel; Martins, JoséAs information systems and technologies grow in usage in the agri-food industry, thesame has happened to the relevance of Information Systems (IS) that allow for aparallel control, monitoring and management of the organizations' activities and busi-ness processes. As the literature proves, the benefits of implementing adequate andinteroperable IS are very numerous and tend to represent a significant determinantregarding the organizations' overall success. Despite this, to the best of our knowl-edge there currently is no IS architecture designed to serve the specificities of theagri-food industry. With this study a novel information systems architecture for theagri-food sector is proposed. The artefact is composed by 12 integrated main compo-nents and a set of subcomponents aimed at supporting all the monitoring, controland management activities. In order to validate the proposed architecture a casestudy was implemented at a mushroom production organization. This allowed us toperceive the ability of our artefact to serve as the basis for the development of ISthat address all of the organization's business and environmental needs.
- Assessing the success behind the use of education management information systems in higher educationPublication . Martins, José; Branco, Frederico; Gonçalves, Ramiro Manuel; Oliveira, Manuel Au-Yong; Oliveira, Tiago; Naranjo-Zolotov, Mijail; Cruz-Jesus, FredericoThe continuous use of dynamic and disruptive ICT as energizing elements of the educational process is a reality of current days, where millennials are the centre of an education paradigm in which students are much more inclined to use technologies than enrolling in a traditional non-digital course. Considering education management information systems (EMIS) capacities to collect, analyse, process and publish information and data, it is easy to perceive their relevance to both education organizations and students. Nevertheless, and despite EMIS complexity and inherent possibilities, the existing literature does not provide for a detailed characterization on the impact these systems might have on students’ success. Thus, this research focuses on understanding the use of EMIS by students and the arising of net benefits; it introduces an EMIS success model which posits that to ensure net benefits for students, education institutions must safeguard that their education management information systems are of high quality, while at the same time students are maintained satisfied with the system and engage in continuous use. To assess the posed model, an empirical study has been performed, involving students from higher education institutions. Findings from the study allow us to perceive that, as information systems (IS) success models state, EMIS use and students’ satisfaction are predictors of net benefits. This same model also claims that the available information quality and EMIS inherent service quality are also strong determinants of both continuous EMIS use and student satisfaction.
- BlockU: extended usage control in and for BlockchainPublication . Khan, Yasar; Ali, Toqeer; Fariz, Megat; Moreira, Fernando; Branco, Frederico; Martins, José; Gonçalves, Ramiro ManuelAn electronic business transaction among untrusted bodies without consulting a mutually trusted party has remained widely accepted problem. Blockchain resolves this problem by introducing peer-to-peer network with a consensus algorithm and trusted ledger. Blockchain originally introduced for cryptocurrency that came with proof-of-work consensus algorithm. Due to some performance issues, scientists brought concept of permissioned Blockchain. Hyperledger Fabric is a permissioned Blockchain targeting business-oriented problems for industry. It is designed for efficient transaction execution over Blockchain with pluggable consensus model; however, there is limitation of rapid application development. Hyperledger introduced a new layer called Hyperledger Composer on top of the Fabric layer, which provides an abstract layer to model the business application readily and quickly. Composer provides a smart contract to extend the functionality and flexibility of Fabric layer and provides a way of communication with other systems to meet business requirements. Hyperledger Composer uses role-based access control (RBAC) model to secure access to its valuable assets. However, RBAC is not enough because many business deals require continuous assets monitoring. Our proposed model, BlockU, covers all possible access control models required by a business. BlockU can monitor assets continuously during transactions and updates attributes accordingly. Moreover, we incorporate hooks in Hyperledger Composer to implement extended permission model that provides extensive permission management capability on an asset. Subsequently, our proposed enhanced access control model is implemented with a minimal change to existing Composer code base and is backward compatible with the current security mechanism.
- A conceptual research model proposal of digital marketing adoption and impact on low density tourism regionsPublication . Jorge, Filipa; Teixeira, Mário Sérgio; Correia, Ricardo Jorge; Gonçalves, Ramiro Manuel; Martins, José; Bessa, MaximinoNowadays, tourism faces the technology progress challenge. Tourists are changing the way they search for information and the way they buy tourism products and services. Therefore, becomes important to analyze the influence of relevant digital marketing tools on low density tourism regions success, measured through destination image, tourists’ satisfaction and loyalty. The main aim of this article is to demonstrate the theoretical support of a model about the impact of digital marketing tools technologies on low density tourism region. To achieve this purpose, a literature review will be used as a methodological basis. This study also intends to contribute to the scientific debate through the improvement of knowledge in digital marketing tools applied to tourism and for this industry stakeholders.